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The periodically scheduled conference of the Home Secretaries of the federal states and the Federal Ministry of the Interior (“Innenministerkonferenz “ or short “IMK”) sets the political priorities of German domestic policy. In many cases one can conclude the direction in which German domestic and legal policy is going to develop from the decisions made at the IMK. In particular German asylum policy is going to be on the agenda at the conference in Cologne, beside other topics such as “organized (burglary) crime”and “violence of hooligans & ultras”.

Outward Isolation …

Every day we are confronted with European countries dealing violently and cynically with victims of global poverty, so-called “humanitarian” interventions or civil wars; especially at the external borders of the EU. The European Union agency for external border security “Frontex” specifically prevents refugees from crossing the border and entering the EU; often by exerting the “push back”method, leaving refugees abandoned to their fate on open sea.The borders of “Fortress Europe” are controlled by aircraft and drones, and fortified with walls and barbed wire fences. German foreign and asylum policy is a key factor in enforcing ostracizing and pauperizing practices on a world-wide scale. The means of German domestic policy are isolation, forced migration and deportation. Within national borders, nationalist and racist propaganda are used to mobilize against refugees, criminalized undocumented people and against those seeking protection; all who further have to face persecution by government authorities. Prosecuting agencies and authorities reacted dramatically in particular on self-organized protest of victims, during demonstrations against deportations, against residential obligation and inhumane living conditions in so-called. Asylum centers. The recent resistance of refugees in Hamburg and in Berlin (Oranienplatz, Ohlauer Straße), which is highly symbolic, discommodes public authorities.

The item “organized crime” on the agenda of the upcoming IMK comprises first of all discrimination against people of East Central European origin due to poverty migration.A special focus of the German Home Secretaries of the federal states and their prosecuting agencies is on Romani people, who have fled their home countries from pauperization, but principally because of antiziganistic persecution. This form of security policy means more “racial profiling”, more police harassment and more leverage exerted by authorities on victims of institutional racism. In Cologne the aggravation of domestic policy is revealed by the expansion of “Gefahrengebieten” (“areas of danger”). In these areas public authorities are entitled to enforce identity checks without suspicion among other things.

… and inward repression!

Most of the refugees, who currently seek shelter from persecution, flee regions in Iraq and Syria. While many people from both war-torn countries see the only alternative for themselves and their families in abandoning their homeland, the North of Syria (more precisely in Rojava) offers a flicker of hope. In this region, the Kurdish population has freed itself from the fetters of the illiberal Baath regime and has started to establish an alternative model of society, the democratic confederalism. This is a progressive and grassroots democratic model, which strengthens the rights of women and religious minorities. Democratic confederalism is characterized by local and regional self-government implemented by council democracy, women’s councils and democratically organized security forces. Beside that it provides a democratic administration of the economy, which is an alternative to the exploitative postcolonial economy. Both as a progressive force, as well as members of religious and ethnic minorities, people in the region of Rojava are exposed to the constant threat of the reactionary jihadists of the so-called. Islamic State (IS).

While the Turkish government, largely never criticized by the German government, de facto cooperates with the reactionary martinets of the IS, organizations such as the PKK, which defends the progressive societal model in Rojava and call for a direct democratic representation for the Kurds, remain criminalized in Germany since years. This ban on the PKK is not only wrong because of the current developments in the Middle East, but also because it has curtailed basic rights of Kurdish activists in innumerable cases since its enactment in November 1993. Furthermore it has led to the criminalization of the entire Kurdish community in Germany. The stigmatization as terrorist organization impedes the capability of the PKK (or of single members) to play an important and official role as a mediator in the peace process. It also obstructs the possibility that such negotiations between the Turkish government and the PKK can be conducted within the EU.

On December 6 we will show, that we:

side with the victims of the imperial ambitions of the German state striving for world power

consider the isolation of “Fortress Europe” an inhuman line of action

support the refugees’ fight for humane provision of care and their struggle against deportation

deplore and reject the racist policy of “racial profiling” and special regulations, such as the establishment of “areas of danger”

consider the persecution of Turkish and Kurdish left-wing organizations to be wrong and that we speak up for a prompt repeal of the ban on the PKK

For latest information about further actions planned during the conference on December 11/12 NOIMK.ORG